What should you know about them?
The Matses tribe is a group of indigenous people, and they can be found mostly in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon. Historically, their homeland is situated between the Galvez and Javari rivers. They are widely known for being protective of their land. Despite that, they still deal with constant issues like poaching or illegal logging within their region. However, they are a very proud tribe, with incredible traditions.
Where does the Matses name come from?
One of the interesting things about the Matses tribe is certainly their name. Interestingly, the name “Matses” actually means “people”. There’s an alternative name for the tribe too, it’s Mayoruna. This particular name translates as “river people”, which is in line with the location and history of the tribe. Matses have always been connected to rivers, not only through their spirituality, but also their daily activities like farming.
A short history of the Matses tribes
It’s very difficult to know when the Matses tribe settled in their current area, we assume they have been there for hundreds or maybe even thousands of years. What we do know is that the first time they encountered westerners was in 1621. At that time, they were introduced to a lot of new concepts, but also new diseases coming from the Old World. And that was the problem, because very soon after connecting with Westerners, they encountered a plethora of epidemics and these drastically lowered the Matses population.
Over the next few hundred years, more and more outsiders started getting in touch with the Matses, and the tribes ended up suffering a lot of violence and cruelty from those particular people. That’s why the people in these tribes started becoming more aggressive. After a while, the Matses people started kidnapping women outside of their tribes to be their wives. Needless to say, this became an issue to the point where during the 60s, the Peruvian government used Napalm to bomb some Matses settlements.
Yet in 1973, the governmental change ended up making a shift toward the attitude they had when it came to Matses tribes. Instead of attacking them, the government decided to create a territorial reserve and protect these tribes. At the end of the 1960s, some missionaries representing the Summer Institute of Linguistics even chose to learn the Matses language, connect with the tribes and even started living between them.
That was great for them, because it allowed Matses people to see how helpful and friendly other persons can be. That’s when they started focusing less on violence and becoming friendlier. The SIL approach toward introducing religion and teaching the Words of God was very impactful. That’s why not onlyare therepastors from the Matses tribe, but also dentists, tradesmen, health promoters and many others. Not only that, but each Matses community has its own church.
How many Matses people are there?
You will find roughly 2200 Matses that are living on the Brazilian-Peru frontier of the Amazon Rainforest. Most of them are living near the Yaquerana river, which goes right through their land. That’s why the river is seen as the border for their home. Unlike other tribes, Matses see the floodplains, streams and forests as an ancestral territory. They share it with the entire tribe, and that shows the great sense of community this tribe has when compared to many others in the region.
What do Matses people believe in?
The Matses religion has always been a mystery for a lot of people. That’s especially true when it comes to the past few centuries. Since the Matses were very aggressive due to being attacked by other communities, it was very difficult to learn more about them, their lives, and beliefs. However, starting with the 1970s, more people were accepted within their communities and we started learning quite a lot about their beliefs.
Matses people have animistic views, and they try to resolve any life issues with help from various shamanistic rituals. They also think that shamans have the opportunity to navigate multiple, overlapping worlds, hence the reason they can easily connect with the spiritual world. Matses people also think there are a lot of evil spirits, and these hide between regular animals and plants. That means the shaman has to connect with the spirit world and figure out solutions and causes to hunger, illness or even death. There are Christians within Matses tribes, but even they connect with the shaman during challenging times.
Another thing to note about Matses culture is the fact they are split between macubo (collectivists) and tsasibo (more ferocious individuals). Each person identifies with one of the two categories, and they will receive facial markings. Labor is also distributed accordingly. Marriage is interesting, because it’s usually focused on forming unions between the two categories.
A very interesting cultural choice for Matses people is they have a lot of food taboos. These appear due to their great connection with animals and plants. It depends on the tribe, but each of them have prohibited foods, and these will also vary based on the season.
The life of people within Matses tribes
What’s great about the Matses tribes is they have learned how to live a sustainable life and not rely on a lot of resources outside of their main living area. That’s why they live an agrarian lifestyle, with a focus on subsistence. They focus a lot on farming, fishing and hunting. When it comes to crops, they focus on fruits, sweet potatoes, maize, plantains and manioc.
These tribes are also very skilled hunters, and they are extremely good at fishing too. The fact they live in a remote area of the Amazon is helpful because there are a lot of animals ready to hunt. For a very long time, Matses people were relying on blowguns to hunt their prey. However, over the years, they’ve started focusing a lot more on using the bow and arrow.
Unlike other tribes, Matses allow women to go on a hunt along with men. That’s quite unusual, since for many tribes, women usually stay at home and prepare to cook hunted meat. But in this case, they join their men. These men use frog venom or bullet ant stings to help kill their prey quicker.
Learning more about the Matses culture
The culture of Matses people is usually a mix of different things. What’s important to keep in mind about Matses is they only stick to their mother tongue, their own Matses language. They usually lived in a single, long house as extended families. There is a door on each end of the long house, and there you can find monkey bones and skulls. It’s hard to know why they do that, some think it might help them warn any attackers, or they can also be seen as trophies.
Nowadays, Matses have evolved and many of them started living in smaller houses, usually a house for each family. Just like the way they live, Matses are trying to combine old and contemporary values. For a very long time, they have a line which was tattooed on the lips and also across the cheeks, many times they even had bristles stuck out of the upper lip or nostrils. Most Matses are still like that, but that’s not always the case anymore.
The same thing can be said about their garments. Some of the older Matses people still keep their traditional garbs, but the younger generations rely on Western clothing. Another interesting thing about their culture is the fact that men need to pay the bride an amount that will cover multiple different items, ranging from radios to watches, rifles and so on. The man also needs to work for their potential father in law for some time. The role of women is to cook food and also make hammocks for their family.
One thing a lot of people are interested in is how the Matses lead one another. Their communities gathered and decided to maintain an egalitarian approach. They do have a political leader in each of the communities, for the most part the majority decides what action to take. Like in many other political societies, the power of those leaders isn’t respected, and sometimes they even contradict what the community wants in the first place.
Using the forest to heal illnesses
Since the Matses tribes have been living within the Amazonian forests for a very long time, they learned how to use many different plants to heal illnesses. The Matses healers in particular have a very extensive knowledge of the forest plants, their properties and how to use them in order to heal a variety of illnesses.
What a healer does is he sees the various symptoms that a person has. Then they will try to match the symptoms with a specific plant that might be used for healing. These healers have a massive compendium-like knowledge and they understand how to harness all of that to help heal people around them.
As an example, sore throats can appear at times and for a lot of Matses people, this is caused by eating meat from a howler monkey. However, healers know that a plant very similar to the monkey’s voice box can be used to heal any sore throat issues. Relying on natural remedies has helped Matses tribes immensely over the years, although as we said, it was very difficult for them to tackle any health problems brought from outside their tribes.
Do Matses people have any income?
As we said earlier, the interesting thing about Matses tribes is they live a sustainable life and they don’t really have any need for money or financial resources. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, Matses people don’t have any kind of income. Instead, they rely on fishing and hunting to sustain themselves.
What’s interesting, though, is that starting with 1998, Matses people have the right to own their land legally. That’s why Matses tribes now cover over 452,735 hectares. These are spread between multiple areas around the Galvez, Yavari and Yaquerana rivers. Since these areas are protected, no outsider can hunt, acquire fruits or timber from the region. That means the region is fully conserving the resources, thus allowing Matses tribes to live a sustainable life.
Matses tribes have an interesting way of life, which reminds us of the simple times from the past. However, despite their rich culture and unique lifestyle, a lot of Matses people are still living in poverty and they are dealing with a lot of diseases. As we said earlier, diseases brought from the outside world can be devastating for Matses people, with hepatitis and malaria being a prime example. These, among other diseases, are the main death cause for lots of Matses people.
Unlike other tribes, Matses still have a lack of basic services, such as education and health. The fact they live in a protected area is helpful for them, but they still end up in contact with outsiders. Despite that, Matses tribes still manage to survive, and thankfully they are less prone to attacking friendly outsiders that want to help with health issues and many other problems.
Conclusion
The Matses tribe are known for their rich cultures and their exceptional knowledge of animal and plant life. In addition, they maintain a very sustainable life and even have the opportunity to take great care of themselves without relying on any outside sources. Not only that, but their bows and arrows are cleverly crafted and they are an extraordinary work of art.
The fact that Matses people don’t have a distinction between spiritual and physical worlds is fascinating. It brings us a new perspective on life, while showing how this interconnection can lead to a better and happier life. It’s fascinating to learn from these Amazonian tribes, even if their lives have changed over the years, they still retain their roots, while being in line with some of the modern standards!
